Alec Byrne Receives Ireland U18 Call-Up

Republic of Ireland Under 18 Head Coach Jim Crawford has named his squad for the forthcoming Slovakia Cup tournament. Cork City’s Alec Byrne, who made his senior team debut last Monday against Limerick, has been called up to the squad.

Crawford’s team will be participating in an eight-team tournament and have been grouped with Czech Republic, Russia and Turkey with a classification game also involved.

The Irish coach is confident that the squad which travels to Slovakia can give a good account of themselves and show that they can be options for Mohan at U19 level next season.

“I see this as a tournament that will give an opportunity to those players who haven’t been involved before to show myself and Tom Mohan (U19 head coach) where they’re at presently,” said Crawford.

“It is also pleasing that we’ve a few more home-based players involved including Alec Byrne, Dean Dillon, James McSweeney and Jack Keaney who’ve been playing very well at their clubs recently to represent themselves, their clubs and the league at this tournament.”

“The quality of the opposition will be very high. We’ve done our research on them and we know that the Czech Republic, Russia and Turkey are all excellent sides at this age group.”